Tipping in USA

[hopeishere]

I hate tipping it makes me feel awkward and I think you should just pay people properly but I get it's the norm in America.

Few questions:
Taxis - if you pay by card can you add a tip?
Bars do you need cash? I read it's $1 a drink?
Tour guides - how much should we tip them?
Porter $2 per bag?

Thanks!

No one knows where that tip is going. It showed up when they installed the kiosks. The claim at some stores is that it is just in the software by default and they are trying to figure out how to disable it, but it seems to be taking some of them an awfully long time.

Incredble t is but a carpaet fitter asked for a tip at our sons place - he was late and I was there for the carpet fitting on the stairs and landing and our sone was working in hi office - our sone had paid the the carpet people by card and we had to pay the fitter via cash.

As I gave him the money (he had a brand new tranist van, leased oe owned, it was almost brand new) - his attidue was rushed, not even a whiff of an apology for being 40 mins late as he could have updated via phone/text and no verbal 'sorry I am late - When he asked for the tip, the words that nearly slipped out of my mouth were "here's my tip, get a better job." but I did not have it in me, I said "sorry, I don't have caseh on me" to which he walked away muttering, the cheeky little b!!

Tips are tips, no one knows who gets them - I blame the cheaper skates that employe them = we only give cab drivers a tip if they are polite and drive well.

Your perception of 'slightly obsequious, too present service' is really more of a You Problem than you may realise, as a British person.

People are not fawning over you, either as part of some false act or just because they think you'll give a bigger tip. If they're working as servers, it's because they chose to do that, they're outgoing people, they like the hours, and they're happy to maximize their income by being cheerfully attentive. There are options besides restaurant work for people in the US. If they worked as cashiers in a supermarket, no amount of cheeriness or efficiency would increase their income.

If you want less of the 'too present' bit, simply tell them you'll signal to them when you need them, and you're fine otherwise. You can ask directly for what you want. Nobody will be miffed.

And they are paid properly if you give the normal tip.

If you think of the servers as independent operators within the restaurant environment, it might make the concept of dividing your payments easier to understand. The listed menunproce of the food is one portion of what you pay. The service is the other portion.

The servers and other front of house staff are paid a basic wage which the servers then top up by the portion of the bill that the patrons pay directly to them in tips, cutting out the middle man (the owner/ employer).

I'm not from the US but would agree that unless you respect the culture of a country, you don't go

If you can't afford the service charge for your food to be delivered to your table, cleared away and washed up, then don't eat in a sit down restaurant

It is not a tip! The menu price is for the food only, the service charge is for the ordering, delivering, clearing and washing
Yes it's a PITA they don't just add it all up with the tax for you, but that's just how it is

Please don't go and be rude and disrespectful to servers just because you disagree with the method that is used for pricing eating out over there - it's not their decision or fault!

Tipping in America hasn’t been 10% for years! It was 18% pre Covid and that would now be considered low

How is the refusal to tip helping the servers?

If you don't like the system, don't eat out. The restaurant owners are not the ones suffering because of your high horsitis.

There's so much silliness on this thread, it's doing my head in.

Surely the point of travel is to broaden the mind? Appreciate differences? Realise that different places have different cultures and yet they still manage to tick over nicely?

The 'service charge' applied to the bills of people with obvious foreign accents might be there because too many tourists have stiffed the servers previously. Perhaps even some people on this thread have been responsible for this.

Or maybe just understand that like many others, the word tip has different meanings depending on what side of the pond you're on.

You're in a different country when you arrive in the US. The language spoken is American English.

Ive lived in my city for nearly 20 years, and I pay our bills. I know how much we spend on each line item, how much we pay in taxes, and how much of a tip I added to our restaurant bills!

The swung-around iPad became ubiquitous post-covid, and the 18/20/22% options came largely with the iPads. Not long before that receipts would give you a list of what such-and-such % of a tip would mean in $.

18% absolutely was not prevalent before Covid, at least not where I live and where I visited. And where I live, 18% is considered bordering on generous.

Perhaps you live in a different part of this enormous country, with its different laws and regulations and customs in different states, and do things differently where you live.

Indeed. Two nations divided by a common language.

I am a US resident and have travelled extensively in the US for 3 decades and in all those 3 decades 10% would have been considered too low a tip wherever you are. Yes - it has gone up since Covid but to 20% and above. It was never 10.

@mathanxiety that is how it feels. Again a culture clash, I also dislike the sheer amount of choice. We are allowed not to like stuff about other countries.

I found America in general a lovely place, very positive, friendly and beautiful. But the culture of not providing the total cost in the headline price of food and drink in bars and restaurants sucks balls.

If the exchange rates make it too expensive to come here, stay home, or go somewhere else.

Don't be daft! The airlines, hotels, car hire, shops and eateries etc would rather have our custom than not.

Out of interest, what are other Europeans like when it comes to tipping in the States?

I don't mind tipping but it's a bit much that the staff are taxed on the tipsand travellers are indirectly paying tax to the USA with the state tax and the sneaky resort taxes that didn't used to exist

It's more hefty that the 20% vat here

Quite. But you're on a British site so there will be fair number of British people on it and that's our culture which you can choose to understand, or not.

Using 'tipping' as a descriptor of a tax is what is causing the issue. It's disingenuous however much you defend and over-explain it. Perhaps 'Brits' do need a masterclass in how much money things will cost in the US or perhaps they don't?

As you said, if we don't like it we can go somewhere else. Resolved to everybody's satisfaction then.

Utter rubbish!!
You are now just on a wind-up!!

By that way of thinking, you should be annoyed that everyone you pay for a service or goods in the US - hotel/taxi/spa/grocery store - are taxed on their profit or income so you are indirectly paying tax to the USA.

I can't say I ever felt that I was indirectly paying tax to the UK when I bought something from Marks and Spencers or paid to go into an exhibit.

Tipping isn't a tax. It is a tip. That is then considered part of the salary of the person you tip. The US is a different country with different ways of doing things. You can really hate the way it works - plenty of people here probably don't like the way tipping is going either - but what you shouldn't do is refuse to pay the tip - that just shafts the waiter.

It is a culture clash. Americans find it really hard to see how tipping is anything other than A Good Thing (I am American). Not tipping is viewed as a lowly act. British people find it annoying and can find American levels of customer service annoying. I agree with the word obsequious, and I have been a server in America.

It is the system in place there and you have to follow it, you really can't opt out of tipping no matter how annoying

I feel like this argument will go around in circles for ever. Tipping in restaurants is mandatory, everyone knows it's mandatory and if you're not prepared to pay it then don't go to a restaurant.
The 18/20% is the minimum, if you've had great service then feel free to leave more. If you feel that you've had poor service, then the way to address this is to speak to a manager. Maybe they'll comp your meal or offer a free dessert etc. Walking out without paying what you owe is not the way to address it!

A friend of mine in Texas tended bar. She earned $2.81 per hour. One year having worked lots of big outdoor events she worked out that with tips she had earned nearly $150,000.

@Pallisers

Yes I haven't not tipped but before the internet and mumsnet I didn't think that much about it

I'm not.

There is a great deal of fundamental (and gobsmacking) misunderstanding and ignorance on this thread.

Tips = income in the US, and the majority of Americans understand that.

Brits seem to see tips as akin to throwing crumbs to the beggar at the gates, and they see serving in a restaurant as a lowly role, whereas many an American has paid his or her way through university working in a restaurant. Serving food is seen as an opportunity to make far in excess of a minimum wage in a shop or wherever, in the US.

Travel should be a learning experience, a way to broaden your horizons, and see how ways that differ from what you're familiar with can still work.

I am Irish, and I do understand the British hangups around tipping.

There are indeed a fair number of British people on this thread, but it's primarily a British site, not exclusively British. There are Aussies, Kiwis, Irish, American, and many others posting here and offering insights into topics that seem to baffle some of their fellow posters.

The culture under discussion here is American, not British, and since there is a great deal of aversion to the concept of tipping among some sections of British opinion here, it's probably useful for those with wide experience of American culture to point out where those posters are going wrong.

This x1000

US resident here.

Tipped minimum wage is much lower. $2.13ph. Some states do not allow this. CA is one. If your tips don't make it up to the legal minimum the employer is supposed to pay the difference but not all employers do. Also, servers don't necessarily get to keep all their tips. They may do tip pools or have to tip out the bussers and runners.

Remember if they didn't have tips the prices would go up, so there's no using "can't afford it" as an excuse. You're going to pay for service one way or another.

Danny Meyer, who is a well known restauranteur in NYC, tried abolishing tips. It turns out it wasn't the customers who hated it so much (though there were complaints). It's staff. Because the problem with tips is that some people lose, but some people win. The people making big money off tips don't want to lose it, and when they've abolished tips, to make it stick they wouldn't accept them -- so it wasn't like French 'service compris' where you pay for service but tips are just a bit extra.

I refuse to tip if I'm not actually receiving service, and I don't tip the same for counter service takeaway coffee as I do for a meal. But I don't skimp on a meal or a haircut. It makes British people look cheap (I live in the US, but the accent gives it away) and you don't fix the system or hurt restaurant owners by stiffing the staff.